In short, as Goethe put it, only if we can 'imagine ourselves as the author of any conceivable crime,' and mean it, can we be reasonably sure of having dropped the mask and of being on the way to becoming aware of who we are. ERICH FROMM
In an era of counselling on demand, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, e-coaching and a host of other quick-fix solutions to our mental and spiritual crises, how invigorating it is to reread Erich Fromm's The Art Of Being, as I've been doing recently. Fromm stresses the value of mindfulness and meditation as paths to self-awareness. He's not averse to psychoanalysis, but believes first and foremost in searching and honest self-analysis. And, in an age when Freudian analysis has been unfairly (in my opinion) sidelined in favour of trendier Jungian analysis, and when the theories of people like Janov and RD Laing have been neglected in favour of eminently sensible, no-nonsense regimens like CBT, it's refreshing to see Fromm taking ideas from Freud and Marx and running with them - indeed, developing and broadening them. This paragraph comes from the chapter Methods Of Self-Analysis:
What can I know of myself as long as I do not know that the self I do know is largely a synthetic product; that most people - including myself - lie without knowing it; that 'defense' means 'war' and 'duty' submission; that 'virtue' means 'obedience' and 'sin' disobedience; that the idea that parents instinctively love their children is a myth; that fame is only rarely based on admirable human qualities, and even not too often on real achievements; that history is a distorted record because it is written by the victors; that over-modesty is not necessarily the proof of a lack of vanity; that loving is the opposite of craving and greed; that everyone tries to rationalize evil intentions and actions and to make them appear noble and beneficial ones; that the pursuit of power means the persecution of truth, justice and love; that present-day industrial society is centered around the principle of selfishness, having and consuming, and not on principles on love and respect for life, as it preaches. Unless I am able to analyze the unconscious aspects of the society in which I live, I cannot know who I am, because I don't know which part of me is not me.
